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Are you or do you know a fundraising “bright spot”?

Do you know a social change organization (or more than one!) that has built a strong individual donor program? If so, we want to know who they are. Following up on the widely discussed findings of UnderDeveloped: A National Study of the Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising, we’re looking for the “bright spots”--the organizations that are achieving truly compelling results with individual donor fundraising and are sustaining those results over time. CompassPoint and Klein & Roth Consulting, with the support of the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, are conducting a national search for potential case studies to serve as the basis for an in-depth exploration of how some groups do achieve breakthrough results in individual giving.

Nominate potential candidates for this national research study by emailing: brightspots@compasspoint.orgby March 27th. Please include in your email the name of the organization, their website, and the email of your contact there, if you have one. (You can learn more here about our motivation for this project and about the Haas Jr. Fund’s other explorations into fundraising solutions for social change organizations). Thank you!

DEAR KIM KLEIN FUNDRAISING Q & A

We are being advised by a consultant to stop trying to build a broad base of donors and instead to focus on high net worth individuals and seek six figure gifts from them. The consultant says it will be faster and more lucrative which makes sense to me. Why do you advise focusing on small gifts?

Seeking Efficiency and a High ROI

Dear Efficient,

My focus (and the focus of all good fundraisers) is on asking people you know for money, and then asking the people you know who they know who might also help you. If you hang out with high net worth individuals who are also generous donors, then I would agree with your consultant that you should ask them. But why would you only ask them?